Savior
by FearSiphon
Summary: Set between the end of Advent Children and the end of Dirge of Cerberus. Everyone knows what happened with Cloud and the gang after Advent Children and during Dirge of Cerberus but what about what happened to The Remnants, Sephiroth, and Clouds's friends in the Lifestream? "I'm not one to pass up a good fight," retorted Kadaj. "A trait I believe I got from you."
1. White Light

**Hello! This is my first story on this site. Hopefully it's up to people's tastes. It is set between the end of AC and DOC and in the Lifestream for the most part. I know it's kind of odd and i tried to keep it as in sync with the story line as possible but forgive me if i got something wrong with adding my own twists. I will only continue with this story if it gets some kind of response and it is meant to be a short story which is why the story is so fast paced. It is only meant to be a hand full of chapters. Well.. Enjoy! And reviews will keep the chapters up!**

**;)**

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**White Light**

Kadaj fell gracelessly to the ground as his originator's wing dissolved from around him. He was weak. He had not the strength to drop properly and the fall damaged him greatly. He was not finished yet. He stood on unsure footing and slashed sloppily at Cloud with his Souba unsuccessfully and lost his balance to weakness. Cloud quickly caught him and lowered him to the ground. "Brother," Kadaj rasped. Cloud said nothing.

"Kadaj," It was the voice of a woman calling Kadaj's name.

_Huh?_ A raindrop splattered on his cheek followed by an onset of others.

"You don't have to hold on any longer," it said.

Kadaj's fist clenched, "Mother, is that…?" He blinked.

"Everyone's waiting, if you're ready," she said. He nodded slightly and a tear escaped his eye. White light. It was all Kadaj saw as he lay dying in Cloud's arms. Then there was an outstretched hand. A woman's hand. He grasped it and held on. Kadaj let himself die.

The feeling of being dissolved into the Lifestream, the river of life that circled the planet and gave life to the world and everything in it, where souls, minds, and thoughts go when they die or are forgotten, was like nothing Kadaj had ever felt in his unimaginably short, young life. It was as if everything in his body was relaxing. The tenseness in his muscles, the injuries his body had sustained from his and Sephiroth's battles with Cloud; everything just _eased_. The green fragments of light that his body was dissolving into were _pleasant_ and not at all like the offensive rain that splattered him in the church while he escaped with Mother from Cloud. His body was overcome by euphoria but Kadaj barely noticed it. He would finally, after all he'd been through, get to truly reunite with his Mother. He had gone to so much trouble; he had been at strife with the man who caused his originator's demise all for her. And he would do it all again in a heartbeat. Because that was what it meant to be at Mother's requisition, to execute her will. The darkness that came afterward was the epitome of loneliness.

Something was not right. This was the Promised Land; he had fulfilled his purpose through thick and thin, and all the while with complete and total devotion to Mother! So why did something feel so strange?

There was a sudden feeling of pressure in every fiber of his being and he took comfort in the warmness coming from light weight on his forehead. Then there were voices, "He's regaining his senses."

Then another, "That's good, right?"

"_Shh, Zack, you'll wake him!_" The first, female, voice reprimanded the other in a whisper.

Then the third voice spoke up, the pitch was low, "It's okay, he's wakening anyway."

Kadaj bristled. The male voices did not sound like those of his brothers'. Then they must be those of brothers he never met, Kadaj rationalized. _No_, Kadaj thought, he was dead. The only brothers he had (excluding Cloud) were Loz and Yazoo and those men sounded _nothing_ like them.

Kadaj had gained most of the feeling back in his body, but what he now recognized to be a hand still rested on his forehead. He ignored the cautious conversation of the trio watching over him and squinted. The light was so bright now that it had his eyes aching behind his lids. He grunted at its unpleasantness and the voices suddenly ceased. Kadaj sighed. That was so much better.

With his eyes still closed tightly (the light was really doing a number on his sensitive eyes) Kadaj sat up with as much grace as possible, considering that his lower half still felt like pins and needles. In case one of the men was Sephiroth, he did not want to make himself look foolish. He _was_ in the presence of Mother after all. The hand that was on his head was removed during the action and Kadaj leaned back on his hands for support while he waited for his eyes to adjust.

"Kadaj?" the female inquired. That got his eyes cooperating. He opened them and immediately he felt the familiar tingle of his pupils dilating into the thin, catlike shape. Ignoring the two males, (none of them were Sephiroth or his brothers so they were of no significance to him) Kadaj smiled with all his joy of finally reuniting completely with his Mother.

He gasped out, "Mother?" He tried to stand and immediately fell to his knees as his legs were not able to cooperate quite yet. She had green eyes and long brown hair tied back with a pink bow in a braid.

The woman grimaced, "Kadaj, my name is Aerith. I-"

Kadaj's face twisted, "Aerith?" He knew for a fact that his mother was called Jenova.

The woman tried again, "Yes," she said slowly, "I was the one who vouched for you and your brothers. The planet, it was going to doom you-"

"… Not... Mother," Kadaj whispered distressed and cutting Aerith off again.

The man with the spiky black hair bent down to his level and spoke up, "You okay, kid?"

Kadaj had not paid any attention to him or his larger companion before, but focused his attention on them now, his gaze distraught. The spiky haired man immediately backed off and put a protective arm in front of Aerith. "It's okay, Zack," she said. Zack stood back up and folded his arms behind his head not looking convinced. "You have to listen, Kadaj, the planet-"

"Where are my brothers," Kadaj snapped. He had had enough. He was pulled from executing Mother's will to be commanded by some dead woman in, what he rationalized to be, a field of flowers in an expanse of white atmosphere and observed by two dead Soldiers.

The woman's face was pained when she responded, "I'm afraid they are with Sephiroth now."

That piqued Kadaj's interest. His gaze became thoughtful, "Sephiroth?" _Why would they be with Him_, he wondered.

The third man spoke up this time. He was the larger of the two large males with slightly wavy black hair and pure white wings on the left side of his shoulder. "Shortly after you arrived the two you call your brothers showed up," He paused to shift in his stance, his feet apart and his arms crossed, "said they were looking for you."

"How long," Kadaj asked sharply.

"Could've been a few minutes, maybe hours, possibly more; time doesn't work the same way here." _Minutes? Hours?_ There was no telling how long he had been there meaning there was no telling how long he had been out of commission. Kadaj glared at the man, his temper flaring. The trio was utterly useless! Kadaj conclusively stood. He needed to find his brothers.

Voices called after him, "Hey! Where ya goin'," said the shorter of the two males. Kadaj ignored him and continued on.

"Wait," called the woman still sitting amongst the flowers. The scenery changed. Kadaj found himself walking back towards the woman and her two companions in the exact position he turned from them in.

"Wha…," Kadaj's eyebrows furrowed. He turned around again to find himself still facing the trio. They were keeping him there. "Stop playing games," he growled. He had a feeling that it was the woman who was in charge of the scenery and she was trying his patience.

"Loz and Yazoo, they came to Zack and Angeal looking for you. They went to Sephiroth before they could find me," she said.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Kadaj asked.

"You've been in my care since you arrived into the Lifestream," She responded. It made sense as to why he was separated from his brothers now but that still did not answer the question as to why they were with Sephiroth still. Aerith bowed her head and clasped her hands together. "Your brothers have ceased to exist apart from Him as separate entities," she continued solemnly.

Kadaj's heart sped up; his breath hitched. She could not mean what he thought she meant, _but without Mother's cells..._ Her genetic information was what gave them power.

"Sephiroth has absorbed them in another attempt to resurrect himself." The two men shifted to stand on either side of her and she pointed to a puddle that Kadaj had not noticed previously in front of her. "You are the last piece to completing his tangible form, to resurrect his mind and body. Come," she beckoned Kadaj to see inside the puddle. Across from her he peered into the puddle as it shimmered and a mansion appeared and around it a dark expanse of woods.

"This is Sephiroth's domain. Like this space is my domain," she explained. No doubt the two guardians have their own domain, Kadaj thought. He knew why he had not his own domain. _I am not a complete being_, he thought morosely. "In order to find Loz and Yazoo, you must meet him there and let yourself be absorbed by him," strategized Aerith, "only then will you be able to retrieve them. Kadaj you more than any of your brothers represent Sephiroth's will; only you can stop him."

_Let myself be absorbed by Him_, he thought,_ not a chance!_ But he also knew that he could not just _leave_ his brothers there with Him. _What would Mother think?_ _I will not abandon them with Him_, he decided, _I have no mind to be lonesome in this apocryphal nirvana._ He would think of another way to retrieve his brothers and they would wreak havoc inside of the Lifestream until they found Mother anew. They would take revenge on the planet from the inside out. And thus began Kadaj's journey.

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Well? Thoughts?


	2. Feathers

**Hello again! Well thanks to the reviewer Lidian Jo I am updating this story! All of the chapters are already written but I just wanted to wait for a response to update XP **

**To Lidian Jo: Well first off thank you for the review! I I'm glad to see that your giving this a chance XD I was so excited to read your review and it was very thoughtful! As for the intentions of Cloud's Lifestream friends, well.. despite this story having some heavier aspects to it, it really doesn't have that heavy of a plot. Like I said, it is only meant to be a hand full of chapters so.. yeah. Their intentions are the same as always. Trying to save the world. :D It'll all tie together as the story goes on. **

**To anyone else reading: In the first chapter the setting was supposed to be more like the Lifestream: Light. This chapter is supposed to be more like the Lifestream: Dark. Otherwise called Heaven and Hell. If i could re name the chapters the first would have been named Heaven and this one would be Hell.**

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**Feathers**

_ Continue onward through the flowers until you will yourself out of this domain_, Aerith had told him. And Kadaj did, only outside of Aerith's domain was not Sephiroth's domain like he had expected. In the outside space there were no flowers like in Aerith's domain. Instead there was grayed out space and a river with clear translucent water that Kadaj walked on and did not fall through. There was also heavy rain and in the sky looming dark clouds that occasionally let out bright flashes of yellow lightning. Several times Kadaj stopped to wring out his hair. The rain fell into the river but Kadaj's feet still stayed above water carrying onward. The sounds of savage beasts roared and screeched in the distance.

Now standing in front of the forest that would bring him to Sephiroth's domain Kadaj was weary. He was bloody from the encounters he had with genetically modified anomalies that dared charge at him on the river, his ankle length black leather jacket was long since shredded by claws and forgotten, and his long black leather boots had become so drenched with rainwater that he opted to walking barefoot. The only thing that stayed in tact on his person was his double bladed katana, Souba, secured to his waist.

With his dominant gloved left hand supporting his injured right shoulder and his miraculously still gloved right hand holding his no-doubt broken ribs, Kadaj disappeared into the tree line. The trees provided more cover from the hellacious storm above but blood seeping from his wounds still mixed with water forming pink tinged drops drizzling down his pale tense body. He breathed heavily, fleetingly wishing for a cure to heal his inconvenient injuries.

Ducking and weaseling his way under branches proved to be an inefficient way of navigating his way through the forest. _If only Mother had chosen me as her champion, there wouldn't __**be **__any problems,_ he thought, _because I would have taken revenge on the planet and executed her will by now!_

Kadaj hissed as a branch he had stepped on sprang back up and re-opened a healing gash on his abdomen Fresh blood spilled down his stomach muscles mixing with water. The rain barely drowned out the tearing noise it made. He wished that his Mother had given him more of her power then. _It would have been nice to be less vulnerable to the elements,_ he thought, _Sephiroth certainly is. Maybe it is Mother's way of showing her care; a mother's love, right?_ A bellowing in the distance brought his mind back to the task at hand. _My brothers, I've come to retrieve my brothers. _The multi-pitched bellowing now sounded considerably nearer and Kadaj picked up his pace.

Stumbling his way through a seemingly endless expanse of trees and darkness had left Kadaj feeling doubtful about the legitimacy of Aerith's direction to Sephiroth's Domain. The large black feathers conspicuously turning up occasionally fueled him to press onward.

As a quantity of feathers began to accumulate and trees began to thin, Kadaj found himself at the entrance to a clearing. He stepped over some fallen leafless branches into the clearing.

At first there was only the sound of Kadaj's heavy breathing and the thundering and pouring of rain. He sensed his original and his brothers strongly in this place and he spun around, green eyes dilating into cat-slit pupils searching.

"Show yourself," he called angrily to the trees. He refused to leave even after time passed and behind him there was a loud whooshing sound. He turned around quickly enough to witness Sephiroth descend from the sky. The rain pouring into the clearing did not seem to touch him as his hair and leather clothing were still dry and his wing, miraculously, was not water logged. The power radiating from him was more amplified than Kadaj remembered when he was being used as a host body for the legendary general. He guessed it had something to do with his brothers' spirits current residence inside of him.

The way his feet landed so gracefully onto the wet black ground and the way his long silver hair whipped in the strong wind distinctly reminded him of his brother Yazoo. The furrowing of his brow and the smirk of his lips reminded him of his brother Loz.

"Tell me," said Sephiroth, "how does it feel to be stripped of all of which you cherish?"

Kadaj stood up straight and his face hardened. "Why did you do it?" Kadaj questioned. Sephiroth simply raised his eyebrow. "Why did you absorb them? How is absorbing us supposed to resurrect you?"

"Simple," Sephiroth stated,"absorb enough compatible souls that won't automatically fuse with the Lifestream and I may live again. The three of you are perfect matches." In one movement, Sephiroth beat his wing and launched himself to land behind Kadaj and before he knew what hit him, Sephiroth landed a hard kick to his back. Kadaj was sent to the ground barely catching himself on his hands.

"If I had no further use of you I would end your existence now. You are weak. There truly can only be one chosen," Sephiroth said circling Kadaj. Kadaj's eyes were trained on him the entire time.

"Why not absorb me now? What are you waiting for?" Kadaj asked. He was curious but also stalling for time to recuperate. His questions went ignored.

Before Kadaj stood completely a hard elbow was driven into his stomach. His left hand and a knee held his body from the ground, his right held his torso. With his head held down, silver hair falling over his face, he spat blood from his mouth.

"Hm..." Sephiroth smirked again. "You could never replace me."

With an arrogant chuckle the One Winged Angel took to the sky. Several feathers were again left in his wake.

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**Yeah.. I fangirled a bit while writing this. Sue me. No seriously don't, All rights belong to Square.**


	3. The Puppet

**I am choosing to update again today because I realize that this is a very short chapter and also because of another response.**

**Lidian Jo: Thank you! The reason Sephiroth left Kadaj with unanswered questions is because he simply doesn't take him seriously. He's a bit overconfident when in his domain X3 As for the story making sense as it progresses.. well I just hope I wrote it to where it actually does and if it doesn't then I'll just have to write a bonus chapter!**

**I hope the the references to everyone's speech from the previous games, movies, etc. isn't making anyone uncomfortable O.o I tried to make it as Advent Children-y as possible. That's not a real word I know :x**

**All rights to Square**

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**The Puppet**

Twice Kadaj had met Sephiroth in clearings in the leafless black forest. The first time he was overcome by his originator. The second time he was confused.

Kadaj had allowed himself time to recover somewhat from his previous battles' injuries so that when he had engaged Sephiroth he would be able to fight. Only when Kadaj charged at him he was some how knocked down to his knees by his original.

"Nothing but an incomplete puppet," Sephiroth had called him.

The use of the term had set Kadaj off and when he clashed blades with Sephiroth again the force of Sephiroth's blade, Masamune, had sent him flying onto his back. Sephiroth's blade was inches away from his throat. Then Kadaj had laughed finding it funny that even though he was overpowered by Sephiroth he no doubt noticed his increase in power now that his wounds healed.

"Without Mother's cells," Kadaj had begun after Sephiroth had removed his sword from Kadaj's throat, "How did you absorb the others?"

Sephiroth smirked at him, "Mother has long sense been forgotten from even this place."

"But-," Kadaj began.

Sephiroth continued as if he had not spoken and as Kadaj noticed, like he was on auto-pilot."With no connection to the living world we have no access to her cells. Your fantasy of living a happy life with a happy family is and has always been in vain. You are merely a tool for my resurrection."

And that had done it for Kadaj. Sephiroth had no reason to lie to him and he had never felt so hopeless and used in his entire short afterlife and entirely shorter life. He would never get to be with his beloved mother as a family. He would never get to be with his brothers and sisters who shared her cells as a family. He again could not be a complete individual and the one person that he focused his ambition turned out to be just barely a lost memory. He then at that moment felt the need for his brothers more than he had ever before.

When Kadaj's face twisted just before the first sob was released from him, Sephiroth took again to the sky. He allowed Kadaj that tiny shred of dignity.

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**Tell me your feelings.**

**The whole Jenova Lifestream death stuff, if you have questions ask in review or PM form :)**


	4. Scars

**Scars**

Kadaj stood outside the mansion whose presence he was drawn to. He was done executing others' wills. He liked to think of himself as reborn even in death. He was there to stop Sephiroth because of his own will for all of the pain and suffering he had caused and he would rescue his brothers even if he himself was wiped from existence trying. Sephiroth he knew created him as a vessel specifically but the three of them as pawns for his twisted intentions. Sephiroth would pay for his sins if it was the last thing Kadaj would exist making sure of.

He entered the mansion stealthily. There was no point of him being wiped from existence with the first step he took inside the place though he had no reason to worry. The mansion seemed deserted. He could still sense Sephiroth inside though and avoided the area where he sensed him most out of curiosity for the rest of the place. He had wondered when Aerith showed him Sephiroth's domain, why the mansion was here in the first place and got the feeling he should learn what he could from the place.

He had explored the mansion picking up bits and pieces of information here and there but what he learned the most came from a library inside. There were books haphazardly about and what Kadaj read from them he stored in his brain for later use. Sephiroth's "Mother" was an alien calamity named Jenova who was excavated from a two thousand-year-old rock layer by Shinra company scientists and was actually not his mother at all. She was more of a virus than anything, being suspended in animation for so long. He was given her cells inside the womb of his actual birth mother, who Kadaj learned was named Lucrecia Crescent and was also a scientist and was given cells, and was taken from her at birth. What he learned in Lucrecia's journal had restored some of his hope of having a mother but that hope was crushed when he found out in an anonymous journal that she had sealed herself in a crystal somewhere out of guilt for her numerous wrongdoings and inability to be accepted into the Lifestream because of the Jenova cells. He was curious as to why Sephiroth would overlook such important information. It made no sense as to why he would think of Jenova as a mother when it was clear that she was not.

When he arrived at the research lab inside of the mansion Kadaj was determined. He was a man on a mission. He did not just feel hopeless determination but purposeful, strong willed determination. He would dispel Sephiroth's taint and make sure he could not return to the living world again. He would rescue his brothers and _they_ would be together as a family.

Sephiroth was turned with his back to Kadaj with his arms folded across his bare chest when he spoke. "I was beginning to think you wouldn't fight," Sephiroth said slightly sarcastically.

"I'm not one to pass up a good fight," retorted Kadaj. "A trait I believe I got from you," he said equally as sarcastic.

"Hm," Sephiroth turned around to face Kadaj when he spoke next. "You think that you can defeat me, little larva?" Sephiroth summoned his long eight foot Masamune and got into battle stance. The smirk on his face and his cat-like eyes looked as alien as ever and his black right sided wing extended from his flesh. "Come and try," he purred. And when they launched at the same time, they sealed their fates. When they met, blindingly white light flashed and a ringing clash sounded. Instead of being overpowered by Sephiroth again, Kadaj managed to trap Sephiroth's sword in between the two blades of his Souba, momentarily stunning him. When both of their hard eyes met, white light consumed them again and Kadaj was absorbed.

There was a creeping black coming towards the circle of white around Kadaj. He could not see through the darkness. A strange femanine voice whispered to him, one that he had not heard before and could not decipher the words, but it compelled him to move forward and white and gold armor as well as whispering lips flashed through his mind. So he moved forward and as he did, more and more black feathers crept into his pure spotlight until it was consumed and yet now he could see through the darkness.

What he saw both relieved him and boiled his blood. There on either side of him were his brothers, bathed in soft pale green light, suspended in green liquid with swirling black tendrils, hanging from chords like puppets. _Puppets._ He was relieved to see them but enraged at their condition. He rushed to his eldest brother, Loz, first and cut the chords at a length from his limbs and did the same to his other brother. The liquid they were in was once again susceptible to gravity and splashed to the ground taking them with it. The ropes still hung from them but they were cut from the restraints and that was good enough for Kadaj.

He laughed at Loz's hair, as it even wet, was still just as gravity defying, as he walked to him again. Loz sent him a hurt look as he got up. "Don't cry, Loz," Yazoo teased walking after Kadaj.

"I'm _not_ crying," replied Loz with suspiciously watery eyes. Kadaj's heart swelled. He had his brothers back! He, usually not one for physical contact, could not resist roughly grabbing his lean and tallest older brother, Yazoo and his muscular oldest brother, Loz in a hug. They both smiled at him.

When they broke apart from the hug one question still hung in the air. There was a metal construct that resembled the torso of an angel and behind it was a being with a feminine appearance. It was blue-skinned and bare, with silver hair obscuring the right eye and a glowing red left eye. It had a headgear on that left its brain visible and on the headgear it said Jenova. Protruding from the body was a number of ventricle tubes and the main one coming from the stomach was connected to a heart like organ at its feet. On its back was an appendage similar to a wing on the left side and on the right side was a stub.

Kadaj was disgusted by what he saw. _Mother? Yeah, right._

"What should we do with it Brother?" That was Yazoo.

"Destroy it," said Kadaj simply. Loz grunted in agreement. And together they made sure the calamity could never destroy anyone ever again. When they were done they all heard the whispers of the strange female voice again and in the space where Kadaj had come from, the white circle of light reappeared and this time they all were consumed by it together.

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**The reunion! Yay! :D**


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